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| Two major events this week: K'huli kacherri and a wedding. Both quite fascinating
in their own ways though if I had to spend a week attending only one I would choose
k'huli kacherri every time. I know that anthropologists are supposed to be terribly
interested in weddings-- and I am in theory-- in practice they are a little slow
for my taste. K'huli Kacherri (Open Kacherri or meeting) is part of the political landscape in Pakistan. I'm still unsure exactly when these were introduced throughout Pakistan but in this area they have only been around for 4-5 years. In fact no one I have spoken to has ever seen one in their lifetime so whether this is a Bhutto policy, a Zia policy or a Nawaz Sharif policy they are rare around here. This is an occasion fo anyone to speak directly to his (or theoretically I suppose her but I saw only two women at the proceedings) elected officials and civil servants. Bhalot's k'huli kacherri had the Member of the Provincial Assembly (MPA), Major Tahir Saddique, who did most of the speaking, plus the Superintendant of Police for the Area and several other imortant figures in Tehsil as well as District level politics. The meeting opened well-- my own host, Malik Wajjid Ali gave a firy speech demanding a girl's school, a better road, a civil dispensary and wanting to know why the local cement factory doesn't hire local villagers. I must admit that my language skills are not up to the job of following the eloquence of the speakers in Urdu so I relied heavily on after the fact translation. Fortunately I videotaped the entire proceedings so will be transcribing Malik Wajjid's speech and Major Tahir Saddique's response. The next 2 hours were filled with complaints. I don't know whether anything will actually be done about all of these problems (village opinion is divided as to the effectiveness of something like this-- we'll just have to wait and see). The MPA, along with the other civil servants, did make some pretty attractive promises: a new girl's school, a civil dispensary, a road surveyor to see how much the repairs will cost. I will invoke the ubiquitous phrase of this country, Inshallah these promises will be fulfilled. The wedding was, sadly, a wedding that conformed strictly to the recent Nawaz Sharif law. This law restricts what may be served at a wedding. One cup of tea is all that is permitted. While I think this if fundamentally probably a good law (people used to bankrupt themselves financing wedding meals), I can't help but reminisce fondly for about the luxurious feast I enjoyed at the last Pakistani wedding I attended 16 years ago. Apart from the lack of good food the wedding was interesting. The parallels between the wedding and the 'urs' celebrating the pirs is unmistakable. Though in the wedding I attended the showering of money was drasticly toned down-- in fact it only consisted of one singer waving money over the groom's head (the money then went into the singer's own pocket). I was pleased to discover that I am not alone in finding weddings long and a little tedious. Some of the other people at the wedding expressed the same feelings. It's not that anyone begrudges the bride and groom their day in the limelight-- but these things take several days and they last a long, long time during the day. I have been invited to another one next week and will go and hopefully will enjoy it. Pakistanis have dozens of these things they could go to every year-- so I fully sympathize if from time to time they would just rather stay home. As my research only lasts one year I will attend as many of these as I get invited to (however if my friends here read this report they may boycott me from all future weddings). Apart from these two major events the rest of the week has been filled with discussions about these two events. In some respects the discussion is more interesting than the events. I will continue to pester my friends and neighbours about these and other events through the course of the year. |
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